Attributed to Harry Burnett while Yale Puppeteers were working in their theater, Teatro Torito, on Olvera Street in Los Angeles, California, circa 1931. The photo was taken by Harry Burnett at Cal Tech in Pasadena where Albert Einstein was teaching. Einstein saw the puppet perform at the Teato Torito and was quite amused. He reached into his jacket's breast pocket, pulled out a letter and crumpled it up. Speaking in German, he said, "The puppet wasn't fat enough!" He laughed and stuffed the crumpled letter up under the smock to give the puppet a fatter belly. This is a wonderful photograph that Harry treasured. Harry Burnett also kept the letter in a frame and loved to retell the story and at the end give his pixish laugh.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

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"Release" is a monumental sculpture to Nelson Mandela situated at the site in South Africa where he was arrested in 1962 (he remained in custody for 27 years). The sculpture is made of 50 steel columns between 21 and 31 feet high whose arrangement appears random from most angles. However, about 115 feet in front of the sculpture, the columns align to form an image of Mandela's face. The sculpture was created by South African artist Marco Cianfanelli.

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British artist Claire Morgan creates stunning installations out of organic materials including animal taxidermy, seeds, and insects. Morgan often uses taxidermied birds in her works, suspending the birds among intricate arrangements of thistle seeds, bees, or other small objects. Her exhibition "Quietus" is on display at Galerie Karsten Greve in Paris through November 3.

Animals, birds and insects have been present in my recent sculptures, and I use suspense to create something akin to freeze frames. In some works, animals might appear to rest, fly or fall through other seemingly solid suspended forms. In other works, insects appear to fly in static formations. The evidence of gravity – or lack of it – inherent in these scenarios is what brings them to life, or death.